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New telco rules an early Christmas present for consumers

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Released: 21 December 2017

New rules that will force telcos to significantly improve the consumer experience in moving to the NBN have been welcomed as an early Christmas present for consumers. ACCAN has been calling for some time for these issues to be addressed and we are very pleased with the Minister for Communications’ and the ACMA’s announcements. This is a huge win for consumers.

“The ACMA’s analysis of issues relating to NBN migration confirms what we already know, and highlights some very concerning complaint trends,” said ACCAN CEO, Teresa Corbin. “The findings reflect the consumer experiences ACCAN has been hearing about as customers switch over to the NBN.”

The ACMA’s report shows that there needs to be better protection to ensure that consumers have access to a working service, that they are given accurate and consistent information and that there is an improvement in complaints handling to ensure quicker resolution of faults and connection problems. Furthermore, the implementation of these new standards will ensure that if the nbn switchover does not work the previous service will be reconnected so no-one is left without these essential services. These are issues which ACCAN has been raising with the industry, regulators and government. These issues are summarised in our Migration Statement.

“The experience of migrating to the NBN has shone a light on the inadequacies of the current regulatory framework to support the delivery of essential telecommunications services. Once in place these new rules will ensure that the regulator has better tools to ensure practices of telco providers improve,” added Ms Corbin.

“We congratulate the Minister for using these powers, and taking these steps to protect consumers. This is what we have been working towards, and it is what the community needs to have confidence in future telecommunications services. We are eager to work with the ACMA and the Minister on the development of these new rules to improve the consumer experience.”

ACCAN also welcomes the increased transparency that will be provided by the nbn consumer experience dashboard.

“This will be helpful for the community to understand what’s really going on with NBN connections, fault repairs and service delivery performance,” added Ms Corbin.

For more information, contact Luke Sutton on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 0409 966 931. For the latest updates, follow ACCAN on Twitter or like us on Facebook.